Incremental weighs have been used in various environments to provide balance and/or additional loads.
In the weighing scale art, circular weights have been added to a weighing beam to provide balance or to change a weighing range of the balance beam. In U.S. Pat. No. 115,268 to Baker et al, horizontally disposed incremental disc weights are transferred by finger operation of various levers to selectively add the increments to a balance beam. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,145,427 to Leuenberger vertically disposed incremental disc weights are also transferred by finger operation of various levers to selectively add the increments. U.S. Pat. No. 141,556 to Harris is a much simpler device in which vertically disposed incremental disc weights are transferred by finger manipulation from one horizontal bar on the scale frame to another coaxial bar. Opposite the frame is a parallel member comprising the pivoting weighing beam and having four corresponding bars in line respectively with each of the other four bars with a slight gap between the tips of the bars. The capacity of the scale is changed by transferring the desired incremental weight from the frame bar to the respective weighing beam bar. The disc weights remaining on the frame do not enter into the weighing operation. This simple horizontal transfer of incremental weights is the subject of this invention.
In another environment, progressive resistance exercises with weights have become popular for physical development and for specialized training in specific sports. The first recorded example in history of incremental weights in exercise is Milo of Crotona who carried a growing bull on his shoulders around an arena on a daily workout. The bull grew in weight while Milo grew in strength. At that time in history when livestock were not raised to be fattened with special feedings and steroids, it is estimated that a bull might reach a weight of four hundred pounds. Today""s weight lifters can handle much more than four hundred pounds but the system of using increasing increments of weight is still a sound training principle.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century, barbells with hollow globular structures on each end became popular. Small balls of lead ammunition could be placed in the hollow globes and increments could be adding in very small increments.
Alan Calvert, a popular strongman who put on exhibitions and billed himself as xe2x80x9cMilo the Greatxe2x80x9d replaced these small balls of lead with flat plates with slanted edges that could be placed within the hollow globes. He later eliminated the hollow globe and just used the plates. His company was the Milo Barbell Company and he sold it to Bob Hoffman of York, Pennsylvania who kept the basic plate design and renamed the company the York Barbell Company. His smallest barbell plates were 1xc2xc pound plates. The placing of circular plates with central holes on bars also required that a collar be placed on each end and tightened to prevent the plates from falling off if the user tilted the bar too much. This was considered an inconvenience and efforts were directed to make weight loading/changing more convenient.
Pulley machines were a step forward and weight stacks mounted on vertical guide bars were introduced in which a central bar with holes was inserted down thru central holes in the stack of weights. Each weight in the stack has a horizontal hole that mates with a hole in the central bar. By inserting a pin in the hole and thru the hole in the central bar, the desired weight can then be lifted by the pulley. Each weight in the stack is labeled with a number representing the position in the stack or the actual weight of the accumulated weight at that position of the pin. Smaller increments of weights that had a proper outline of cutouts compatible with the vertical guide bars and the central bar could be set on top of the topmost weight in the stack to add to the weight stack resistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,152 to Simonson provides an added feature that eliminates the inconvenience of having to pick up and place the smaller increment weight with cutouts on the topmost weight. FIG. 1, labelled xe2x80x9cPRIOR ARTxe2x80x9d, illustrates this feature as applied to a weight stack in an exercise machine. Small circular weights 1 with centrally located holes 2 are supported on an outer frame member 3 by a bracket 4 on a horizontal pin 5. Another pin 6 is secured to the topmost weight 7 and is horizontally lined up with the other pin 5 with a slight gap between them. Each pin has a bumper 9 defining a length that can support all the small circular weights. The stack 10 has holes 11 for each weight in the stack and the insertion of a pin will select that weight. The small circular weights are normally supported on the pin on the frame and they can be moved along the first pin on the frame to the second pin on the topmost weight to increase the stack weight by an amount smaller, perhaps ⅓ or xc2xc the amount of the next plate down in the stack. In the example shown, the pin could be inserted at 195 pounds and each increment could be 3xc2xe pounds so that a user could increase incrementally from 195 to 198xc2xe to 202xc2xd to 206xc2xc before using the next stack weight of 210. Each increment could be 5 pounds and the increments could go from 195 to 200 to 205 to 210.
The following is a proposed improvement in the use of small circular weights on substantially horizontal bars that can be transferred to corresponding substantially horizontal bars for use in weighing scales, exercise equipment weight stacks or any other environment in which it is necessary to transfer incremental weights from a frame support to a loading. condition on another frame.
It is an object of this invention to provide the incremental weights and bars in a kit form so that modifications can be made to weighing scales or exercise equipment stacks or other environments needing additional incremental loads or balances that would benefit from the addition of incremental weights.
It is an object of this invention to provide labels or indicia on the circular weights so that the user can observe the amount of weight added in the same manner that he or she can observe the amount of weight selected by the pin position in the stack on an exercise equipment frame. Labels on the existing plates in the prior art cited would not be properly oriented because the circular weights can rotate to any position on the respective horizontal pins and the label may be on the bottom out of sight. The small circular plates must be oriented so that the indicia on the top edge is fixed and can be seen by the machine user. This can be achieved by four methods.